Welcome to the Farside: A Nice Day To Make Perogies

It was a great day today to make Perogies.

3 Chief sized Potatoes peeled, quartered and boiled. The riced.

1 cup of Shredded Cheddar cheese. I like white New York Sharp Cheddar. Vermont too. Add to potatoes in a mixing bowl.

8 slices of fried bacon. Reserve drippings. Chopp up bacon and add to potato mixture

1 medium onion diced and sauteed in bacon drippings. Removed from the drippings with a slotted spoon and added to the potato mixture.

1/2 cup of sour cream.

Mix the above ingredients and season to taste with salt, pepper and just a touch of garlic powder and a touch of nutmeg.

For the dough, 4 cups of flour, 3/4 cups of water, I use the water that I boiled the potatoes in. 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease, 2 beaten eggs and a tablespoon of salt. I put the salt and flour in a Kitchenaid mixer bowl. Then while mixing with the dough hook, I slowly add the liquids which have all been mixed in a 4 cup measuring cup. I slowly add about 3/4s of the liquid to see how the dough comes together. I want the dough to become little pieces about the size of Pastina pasta.

Once the dough is where I want it I then bring the mixture together by hand and wrap with plastic wrap.

Place a pasta rolling attachment onto the mixer. cut off about a 1" slice off the dough and start rolling. I like to roll it to the number 4 setting on the roller.

Once rolled I then cut rounds from the sheet of dough. I roll one sheet at a time.

Cut rounds with a 3 1/2" cutter. Place 1 rounded teaspoon of filling on each round and then seal the Perogie by pinching the edges of the dough together around the filling. This is fresh pasta so I don't need egg or water to moisten the dough. The Perogie is 1/2 moon shaped. I then lay the Perogie on the counter and make sure that the Perogie has a flat bottom side. I also take the opportunity to press the sealed edge one final time while it is laying flat. I'm not the type that feels the need to crimp the edge with a fork but I know some that will do it at this point.

I place each batch as I finish making them on a greased baking sheet. Each batch usually produces 9-10 Perogies.

The filling and dough will make about a total of 65 Perogies.

I continue rolling and filling until all the Perogies are made.

I then boil the perogies until they float in the boiling water. Not too hard of a boil. I boil at about a medium heat. They take about 3 minutes. I remove each batch, the 9-10 Perogies, to a colander with a slotted spoon to drain. Do another batch while transferring the cooked batch back to the sheet pan.

Continue till all of the perogies are cooked and placed back on the sheet pans.

Allow the perogies to cool and then freeze them on the sheet pans. Once frozen, place the Perogies into freezer bags. One bag per batch.

When I am ready to cook a batch, I bring salted water to a boil, Boil the perogies for 3 minutes and drain. Then I melt butter in a nonstick skillet, add the batch of Perogies and one medium sliced onion. Sautee the Perogies until they get to a nice golden brown and crisp around the edges. I like to dip them after they are cooked in sour cream that I add chopped green onions too.